Good Morning Prayer with Rosemary Gutierrez 1-25-18
Jesus is Lord Fellowship WWI
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The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16).

Let Us Pray Today For everyone around the Globe In Agreement For The Brand New Year With Christ Jesus

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Good Morning with Rosemary Gutierrez 1/25/18
Now, I just want to go a wee bit deeper into How To Use The Spiritual Armor Of God.
‘Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God so you may stand against the deceits of the devil, for we are not wrestling against flesh and blood but against evil spirits of wickedness in the heavenly realm. Therefore, put on the whole armor of God so you may be able to resist on the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore, having the belt of truth around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet in the preparation of the Gospel of peace, lift up the shield of faith with which you can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one; and take the helmet of salvation and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God’
*Ephesians 6:10 to 17.

‘Though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, but the weapons of our (spiritual) warfare are not physical (not flesh and blood), but they are mighty before God for the destruction of strongholds’ (2 Corinthians 10:3 & 4).

‘The Lord put on righteousness as a breastplate and salvation as a helmet; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a mantle’ (Isaiah 59:17).

‘Give them a garland of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, so they may be trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord so He may be glorified … I will greatly rejoice in the Lord and my soul will exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness’ (Isaiah 61:3 & 10).

The devil is the father of lies (John 8:44). He deceives all people and all nations on earth (Revelation 12:9). As believers in Jesus, we are going to be engaged in a spiritual conflict at some time in our lives, against the devil. We are warned that the devil is a very sly and cunning enemy (Ephesians 6:11) and we are not to give him any place in our lives (Ephesians 4:27; 1 Timothy 3:7). If we submit ourselves to God, we can resist the devil and he has to flee (James 4:7). If we study these scriptures, we can see we are not wrestling against human beings. People are not the source of most of our problems. We often become angry with people when the problem may well be spiritual. If we always view a problem as dealing solely with people, we will never understand the true nature of spiritual problems that usually run deeper that the human personality. In a human wrestling match, the whole person is involved; the mind, body, will, skill and all the human strength. The same applies to the spiritual. We are totally involved in this wrestling match against the evil rulers of darkness; against spiritual hosts and forces of wickedness, which we cannot see. These are authority figures in the heavenly sphere, but are intensely evil. Every one of these invisible evil rulers has an assigned area of authority in which his ruler ship is effective in the heavenly realm. We need to understand that these rulers, rule over their own designated area, city, state, nation, or empire.

Before people commit their lives to Jesus, they live under the influence of the prince of the power of the air and are called the children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2). Jesus said the devil is their father (John 8:44) and said Judas Iscariot was himself a devil (John 6:70). The devil is the one that hinders God’s purposes and God’s people (1 Thessalonians 2:18). He is the slanderer and the accuser of God’s people; accusing them before God day and night (Revelation 12:10). He uses the mouths of unsaved people to blaspheme Jesus’ holy name. We only have to listen to non-Christian people use the name of Jesus as an expletive to know that. The devil influences them to use the name of Jesus as a curse and he can, because they are children of disobedience. He is their father and they are obeying their father, the devil.

The devil is the prince of the power of the air; the ruler of the area defined as the air; the area in which we live and breathe; the earth’s surface, plus the higher area where the clouds form. By inference, he is the ruler of the surface of this globe – our earth. He does not rule over everybody on the earth but he does work in the children of disobedience. As long as people are disobedient towards God, they are under the authority of the devil. If they repent and turn to God they are delivered from the devil’s authority. Though still physically on the earth, spiritually we are not in the devil’s realm and we are not under his power, unless we give him a foothold through our own sin. He does roam around the earth seeking whom he can attack (1 Peter 5:8) but that certainly does not mean he can attack everyone. All those people who walk in disobedience; the unsaved; those who reject God; those who live unclean lives; those who refuse to believe in Jesus and reject the salvation provided by Jesus; those who refuse to accept God’s will, are all under the devil’s authority. That is a frightening thought for the non-believers. The moment we believe and accept Jesus as our Savior, God the Father qualifies us to be fit to share in the inheritance given to all believers, and we are delivered out of the control and the dominion of darkness, and we are transferred into the Kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:12 & 13). That Kingdom is the Kingdom of God.

We cannot partake of the inheritance of the believers in Light unless God makes us capable. We cannot make ourselves capable, we need God to do that for us. The power of darkness is evil and has authority. The devil is the ruler of darkness and it has authority over the disobedient non-believers. As long as we walk in pride, self-will and stubbornness, the devil is our king. Accepting Jesus as our Saviour does not leave us without a ruler; we are transformed from the kingdom of darkness, into the Kingdom of God by the Son of His love, once we submit to God. We were ruled by the devil – now we are ruled by Jesus. If we are not prepared to be ruled by Jesus, then we will be ruled by darkness. We humans have no option; there are only two kingdoms and we need to choose which ruler we will walk with. Jesus is the supreme King.

There is a system of darkness that desires to dominate the whole human race (Ephesians 6:12). The devil likes to dominate, control and manipulate, and whenever we encounter these evil forces, we will know they are not from God because God never does that. We need to learn to distinguish between the rule of our Lord by voluntary submission by our free cooperation, and the dominating rule by stealth by the devil. The rule of the devil as we have seen is from the heavenly realm. That surprises most people because they think he was cast out of heaven. He was, but he was tossed out of the highest heaven, the highest of places where the angels and the Lord live.

The fallen angels are in hell awaiting judgement because they left their place of power and abandoned their proper dwelling place (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6) but the devil is not with them. After the final judgement he will be tossed into the eternal lake of fire along with all non-believers (Revelation 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8). In the meantime, the devil’s place of habitat is the heavenly realm because that is the natural place of angels. The devil lives amongst the angels and presents himself to God (Job 1:6; 2:1). Evil spirits can also present themselves to God (1 Kings 22:21 to 23). We are called to wage war on the unseen forces dominated by the devil. The war is not in the natural, visible or physical realm, but in the spiritual. Because of that, God has given us the invisible weapons we need to fight that enemy. It is our responsibility to pull down the devil’s strongholds because we Christians have the God-given appropriate weapons needed for this battle against wicked beings. It is our duty to deal with these evil forces, and as long as we are not doing what God requires, the devil is safe.

Our spiritual warfare is not always in the realm of the body in the form of sickness, it can be in the realm of the mind and emotions. We only have to look at the assaults on the minds of people worldwide, and we can see there is a battle. Discouragement, hopelessness, depression, delusions, schizophrenia, uncontrollable anger, violence, ADHD and other behavioral problems, suicide, some forms of epilepsy, involvement in strange cults, drugs, psychotic episodes, the occult and many other areas that affect the mind and brain function. The devil needs to be cast out of the minds of people suffering from these things, so they can have a sound mind and live without the torment (Luke 8:27 to 39). We are to bring every thought into captivity, into the obedience of Jesus (2 Corinthians 10:5). The devil has taken those poor souls captive and it is up to us to liberate them and to do so, we need to prepare ourselves for a conflict. Remember this important point: Evil is not something – it is someone.

Because we are in this spiritual conflict, we need to protect ourselves first. Before we get involved in spiritual warfare, we need first to be aware of the whole armor of God and we need to know how to use it. The armor does not grow on us; we have to consciously put it on by accepting Jesus. Every one of us will at some time, face incredible testing. It is through much tribulation we enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). There is no easy way into the Kingdom of God and life as a Christian is never easy. Jesus said, “When the floods (trails) came” (Luke 6:48). He did not say ‘if’ the floods come. Each ‘house’ was subjected to the same type of ‘floods’. When we come to the ‘evil day’ in our lives (Ephesians 6:13), we cannot assume we are out of the will of God. The ‘floods’ may be evidence we are fully in the will of God, but we need to be prepared.

Looking at these defensive weapons one by one, we can see as we utilize what the Lord has given us to use against the enemy, God will be glorified and we will have peace. When we stand in the face of adversity, it shows the character of someone who is not prepared to allow themselves to be pushed around by evil. Ultimately, it is the Lord who clothes us with salvation, the armor and the garments. Many Christians are ignorant about the truth of the whole armor of God. Some people actually believe they have to literally attempt to ‘pull on’ invisible armor as though they were pulling on clothing. It is impossible to ‘pull on’ spiritual armor. The armor is given to us by the Holy Spirit when we repent, are born-again, baptized in water, filled with the Holy Spirit, and habitually walk with the Lord in holiness and obedience, renewing our minds to connect with God’s will for our lives. None of this is physical – it is all spiritual, as is the armor.

We will look at the different pieces of armor, starting with the girdle or belt of truth. This is basic truth. It is being honest; not telling lies. We are told not to lie to one another (Colossians 3:9). It is being real by not being false; not putting on ‘airs and graces’ to try to impress. It is speaking ‘straight from the shoulder’, and not in frothy language. It is putting away insincerity and hypocrisy as Jesus commanded the religious people of His day, several times. Many Christians are Christians on Sunday only, and during the week their behavior is so carnal, it is hard to see where the Lord fits into their lives. That is hypocrisy. Some people have a ‘preaching voice’, some people have their ‘praying voice’. Most people change their demeanor as they enter church as though they are wearing a mask, almost as though they are acting out a role. We need to take the mask off – be a real person – tell it like it is – call a spade a spade and not an agricultural tool. Call a lie a lie – call lust, lust – call hatred, hatred and do not refine those and other words until the meaning is watered down. Speak the truth like John the Baptist did, and like Jesus did. They did not use frothy language. John the Baptist said, “You brood of vipers!” (Matthew 3:7); Jesus said, “You hypocrites! … You spawn of vipers!” (Matthew 23:13 & 33). We cannot call that ‘politically correct’ speech. If we do not have our girdle of truth on, we will stumble and fall into our own trap, or web of deceit. We need to strip off those ‘masks’ and become one body, in Jesus. Most people do not show their real ‘selves’ once outside the home. Most people back off when honest confrontation comes their way. They do not want to deal with the truth. If we consistently live in an air of deceit and falsity, we are behaving like our father the devil, and Jesus said we must not do that. ‘Put away from you false and dishonest speech, and corrupt talk put far from you’ (Proverbs 4:24). Honesty is necessary for victory. As we can see here, being honest with people is not ‘putting on’ an invisible belt. The Breastplate of Righteousness deals with the heart, which is located inside the chest. The breastplate was joined at the shoulder and covered the whole chest, front and back. ‘My son, attend to My words; listen to My sayings. Let them not depart from your sight. Keep them in the centre of your heart for they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body. Guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life’ (Proverbs 4:20 to 23). Every emotion we experience in life, comes from the heart. What we have in our hearts determines the course of our lives. If our hearts are filled with bitterness, unbelief and fear, our lives will go the wrong way. If our hearts are filled with faith, peace and love, our lives will go the right way. Righteousness is a condition of the heart not of the head. ‘We belong to the Light; therefore let us be sensible and put on the breastplate of faith and love’ (1 Thessalonians 5:8). Faith works through love (Galatians 5:6) and is a condition of the heart. ‘If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and in your heart, believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes and so is justified, and with the mouth he confesses and confirms his salvation’ (Romans 10:9 & 10). There is a difference between believing with the head and believing with the heart. Believing with the head leaves us unchanged. Almost every person on earth believes there is a God up there somewhere, but that does not change their lives. Believing with the heart changes everything; it changes the way we live unto righteousness in God. We need to serve God with love from the heart. We see the breastplate is not an invisible item that we can ‘pull on’. It is an attitude of practical righteousness towards other people that follows love and obedience towards God our Father.

We are to have our Feet shod in the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace. Strong boots are indicated here. The word preparation tells us this has to be done in advance. If we are to communicate the Gospel, we need advance preparation through Bible study and prayer. We need to know the basic facts of salvation as written in the Gospel. For example, Jesus said we all must be born-again (John 3:3 & 7), and we are told everyone must repent and be baptized to receive forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38). Many people do not know how to explain to others, how to be saved; what steps they need to take. If we are going to share the about peace of God, we need to have His peace. We cannot speak about the peace that passes all understanding, if we do not have it. We are to transmit peace as Jesus did many times when He frequently said, “Peace be to you.” Jesus said, “As you go into the house, give your greetings. If the house is deserving, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not deserving, let your peace return to you.” In other words, Jesus meant do not be troubled if people reject the Gospel, just go to the next house, or the next person. The mental preparation is, we are to know the Gospel. The Spiritual preparation is, we need to experience His peace for ourselves. We impart what we are, rather than what we say. We have to live the life before we can impart it to others. ‘Consider well the path of your feet, and let all your ways be righteous. Turn not aside to the right or to the left. Remove your foot from evil’ (Proverbs 4:26 & 27). ‘How beautiful are the feet of them who bring good news (the Gospel), who publishes peace, who brings good news of good things, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns” (Isaiah 52:7). We can see that this act of imparting peace and sharing the Gospel is not trying to ‘pull on’ invisible boots.

The Shield of Faith quenches the fiery darts or flaming missiles of the wicked one. The shield mentioned here, is akin to the old Roman shield that was oval and covered the front of the soldiers from head to foot. It is the kind of faith that totally protects us. We need a strong shield of faith that covers ourselves, our families, our homes, our businesses, our vehicles, and anything else that is ours. ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God’ (Romans 10:17). We need to take time in the Word of God to find God’s provision for us. There is a complete protection provided by God, but many of us do not have a complete shield. There may be areas of sin in our lives that removes part of that protection. Once we have repented, confessed that sin to God and been forgiven, the shield is complete once again. We cannot try to ‘pull on’ the shield of faith. Faith is in our hearts. This faith can also include faithfulness; an overall Godly life, evident by an ongoing commitment and a determination to bring glory to God. As He is faithful to us, so we should be faithful to Him.

The Helmet of Salvation protects the head, the brain, the mind and the thoughts we have. The enemy tries to keep us from being transformed by the renewing of our minds as he whispers lies into our thoughts. We need to walk unceasingly and confidently in the firm knowledge of our salvation. ‘For a helmet, put on the hope of salvation’ (1 Thessalonians 5:8). The devil will try to put within our minds things like mistrust, suspicion, fear, doubt or depression. Many Christians suffer from recurring bouts of doubt and depression. Depression can come down over sufferers like a kind of cloud, shutting people off from family and communication with others. The depression often follows people wherever they go, affecting the sufferer and their family. Winston Churchill called it his ‘Black dog’. There is only one way to deal with depression. First we need to realise it is a spirit that follows us everywhere we go. That is why depression stays with us if we leave one location for another. The scriptures call it a ‘spirit of heaviness’. It is not the person’s fault, it is not psychological, it is not a mental problem, it is an evil spirit. It is an evil being that is after the susceptible sufferer, following them around, studying their weaknesses and attacking when they can. Remember, evil is not something, it is someone. Once we can see that, we can have the victory over that evil thing. We can ask the Lord to deliver us from the spirit of heaviness. It is not a disgrace for anyone, including church leaders, to be delivered from evil spirits. Most Christians need deliverance, especially if the evil influence comes down through the family. It is God Who does the delivering, but it is our responsibility to re-educate our minds. Before deliverance, we cannot re-educate our minds and cultivate different thought patterns to stand against depression. After deliverance, God will not do that for us. We have to stand and fight against depression using the armour of God and self-discipline. We have to renew our minds (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23). We are to put on the helmet of hope, that is the helmet of salvation. Our salvation gives us hope, and we have to consciously cultivate hope. ‘So faith, hope and love endure’ (1 Corinthians 13:13), we need unwavering hope in our Lord Jesus, our Messiah (1 Thessalonians 1:3). The helmet of hope should bring peace. We are told not to be anxious or fret about anything (Philippians 4:6), so we can stop worrying, and start cultivating hope. To continue to be pessimistic, denies the hope that is in faith. ‘For in this hope, we were saved’ (Romans 8:24). ‘Remember … that you once had no hope. You were in the world without God’ (Ephesians 2:12). ‘To whom God was pleased to make known how great for the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Jesus within us, the Hope of glory’ (Colossians 1:27). ‘This was so … we can grasp the hope appointed for us and now we have this hope as an anchor of the soul; a hope both sure and steadfast, entering into the mystery behind the veil’ (Hebrews 6:18 & 19). This figure of hope is as an anchor. A ship needs an anchor to stop it drifting away, just as we need the anchor of hope to stop us drifting away from God. An anchor fastens itself to a rock, just as we are to fasten ourselves to the Rock (Jesus). We can see that we cannot ‘pull on’ the helmet of salvation and hope. The hope of salvation comes the moment we accept Jesus as our Saviour.

Take the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. All the other pieces of armor are defensive, but the sword is used aggressively. This Word here is the spoken Word of God. We read the Words of the Bible which feeds us spiritually, but when we speak out the Word of God, it has a powerful effect. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He deflected the temptation by saying, “It is written.” Jesus, Who is the Word of God, spoke the Word of God audibly. He did not mutter under His breath, He spoke out scriptures from the book of Deuteronomy. The Lord never doubted the authenticity of Deuteronomy, and if we do not doubt the Word of God, neither will the devil because he knows the scriptures are true, and he has to back off. We need to do the same as Jesus did, and speak the Word of God into difficult situations. We need to have the Word of God in our hearts, and we need to speak the Word of God like a two-edged sword, out of our mouths (Hebrews 4:12; Revelation 1:16). ‘My son, attend to My Words; listen to My sayings’ (Proverbs 4:20). The only way we can ‘pick up’ the Sword of the Spirit, is to pick up our Bibles and study them.

All of these weapons cover the whole body like garments. We need to know how to cover our bodies, and for this we need to study the Bible. Isaiah wrote down what he was inspired to say by the prompting of the Spirit of our Messiah (1 Peter 1:11). Jesus read Isaiah 61:1 & 2 out loud when He was on earth (Luke 4:17 to 19). Jesus was sent to give us the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise to combat the spirit of heaviness. He clothes us in garments of salvation and He covers us with the robe of righteousness. If we look carefully at these scriptures, we can see Jesus Himself covers us. As long as we are living with praise on our lips, the spirit of heaviness has to flee. That is how to deal with that evil spirit – by praising and worshiping God and being thankful. When we put on the whole armor of God, which we receive through accepting Jesus as our Savior, then our Savior does the rest by covering us – leaving no part of us exposed to attack from the enemy.

Prayer, fasting and watching are also great weapons of warfare and there are more than 20 scriptures that tell us to pray and fast. By praying, fasting and watching, we are denying the two great needs we have; food and sleep. ‘Watching’ in this context, is to mean for us to stay awake when others are sleeping. We are to pray day and night (Nehemiah 4:9; 1 Timothy 5:5). Jesus prayed all night (Luke 6:12), and said He would defend and protect His people who cry to Him day and night (Luke 18:7). On several occasions, Jesus warned the disciples to keep watch. The Lord said He has put watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, who never hold their peace day and ni